The invention relates generally to power-driven conveyors and more particularly to shoe-type diverting conveyors.
Diverting conveyors, such as shoe sorters, are used to divert articles across the width of a conveyor as the conveyor transports the articles in a conveying direction. Typical shoe sorters include article-pushing elements referred to as shoes that are driven laterally across the conveyor to push articles off one or both sides of the conveyor to one or more outfeed locations. Slat conveyors and modular conveyor belts are used as the platform for the shoes, which ride in tracks extending across the widths of the slats or belt modules. The shoes are conventionally blocked-shaped with depending structural elements that keep the shoe in the track and serve as cam followers that extend below to be guided by carryway guides that control the lateral positions of the shoes. Although shoe sorters are widely used in package-handling applications, they are not so useful in food-handling and other applications where sanitation is important because they are not easy to clean. Another problem is the noise caused by impacts between the shoes and the carryway guides.